The inmates at the Santa Martha Acatitla female penitentiary in Mexico D.F. include women serving sentences for murder, drug dealing and kidnapping. There are also about 50 children living inside the prison with their incarcerated mothers. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

Inside "Cellblock H" where an inmate lives with her 18-month-old child and cellmate. The Mexican government has decided it will allow babies born behind bars to stay with their mothers until age 6, rather than be turned over to foster homes or unprepared relatives. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

A territorial controversy heats up in a classroom while inmates await their teacher. When children are not present, it quickly becomes clear that Santa Martha is indeed a prison where inmates live in extremely close quarters and where tensions can escalate quickly. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

Tensions can quickly escalate among women living in such close quarters. The presence of resident children often subdues a scene before conflicts get out of hand. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

23-year-old Lucia is serving a 25-year sentence on kidnapping charges. Her son Mario, born into the system and now nearly 2, has almost been taken away by authorities three times for his mother's misbehavior and her cellmate's alcohol abuse. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

Mario, 2, born into the system, looks out of prison walls to a world he does not yet know. Inside Santa Martha, moms serving long sentences dread the day when their child is tossed out upon turning 6. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

A group of inmates listen to instructions before a small birthday celebration for a child in a classroom. The women of Santa Martha have formed a very communal, sometimes cliquish way of life, offering one another protection and support. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

A tender moment between inmates. Homosexual relations are common, often between previously heterosexual women desperate for companionship within prison walls. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

Carlos is left in his mother's cell in the care of her cellmate while she works in the prison's food services. Since his birth, Carlos has not been outside the prison's walls. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

Children playing on the grounds and through prison hallways soften the atmosphere and sometimes make Santa Martha feel more like a school than a penitentiary. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

Curious children look out through the bolted gates of Santa Martha's daycare. Often with little family on the outside, many of the children in the prison know nothing beyond the prison walls until they are cast out on upon reaching their 6th birthday. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]

A prisoner watches the children of other inmates play with their mothers in the prison yard and longs for her own young children who live with their grandmother. As her babies were not born into the system, they are not permitted to live in the prison with their mother. (Caroline Bennett/GlobalPost)
- [/]